مناطق شبه الجزيرة العربية الخاضعة للحكم العثماني: بيان مفصل للرحلة الرسمية في بابل وأشور وبلاد الرافدين، في ١٨٨٦– ١٨٨٧ [و‎‎٣‎٣] (٧٢/٦٣)

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for nothing; and as a meeting place of great routes it is of considerable importance. Until
comparatively recently its skirts were defended by strong walls and bastions. These were
thrown down by the reforming hand of Midhat Pasha when Governor of the Pashalik. His
design was to replace them with promenades and boulevards such as he had seen and ad
mired in Europe ; but beyond the demolition stage his work never went. If thus inviting
the desert hordes without, Baghdad is equally vulnerable within. Like an arrow, from an
old word for which its name is said to come, the " Dijla " or Tigris, goes straight between
the eastern and western divisions of the town which fringe its either bank. Navigable for
vessels of five hundred tons, and opposite the large pile in the centre of the city hired bv
Government as British Residency and Consulate-General three hundred and fifty (^o)
yards broad from highwater mark to highwater mark* the river rather than the plain here
forms the key of the position. The riparian tribes between Baghdad and the Persian Gulf
orm in point of physique fine specimens of Asiatic savages. But imperfectly under the
control of the central government it is never easy to say what line they and their Shekhs
may take. Fortunately they are very badly armed. A few shells would send them into
i ing in their marshes ; and, even apart from that, a steamer well parapeted with sand-bags
might pass through their fire without minding it. Once at Baghdad, a few gun-boats, an
chored opposite the Shanas or crosspaths leading down to the water, would save all neces
sity for street-fighting. So close to the stream are the Kh&ns and coffee-houses, barracks
customs house, and Government sar^i, that from the deck of a steamer one might almost
shake hands with the crowds filling their open balconies and windows.
Owing to the Indian Marine Steamer Comet (an iron one of one hundred and
Steamers on Tigris. seventeen (117) tons, armed with two Nordenfelts) on
political duty at British Residency, Baghdad, having gone
for repair to Bussorah, these lines are being written on the " Majidi ah" one of two power
ful steamers, excellently suited both for cargo and passengers, and of about five hundred
(500) tons, run by Messrs. Lynch of London between Bussorah and Baghdad, under a con
cession from the Porte, and conveying weekly Her Majesty's Indian mails. The numerous
native craft covering the same stretch of water represent no small amount of local traffic,
but depending on the wind are for European purposes outside the reckoning. The Otto
man Administration also keeps four or five steamers plying with tolerable regularity on the
river, but rarely venturing higher up than Baghdad.
Many of the features of the Tigris have already come under notice, either when the
The Tigris. route ran near it, or in referring to its sister river Eu
phrates. Rising from opposite sides of a lofty mountain
chain transcending in many places the limits of perpetual snow, the two great rivers of
Mesopotamia flow at first almost straight away from one another. But gradually they
converge, Euphrates from the west, Tigris from the east, until at Baghdad their courses
are only about twenty miles apart. Here would be the site for a canal uniting them. To
agriculture and commerce between them was due much of Chaldea's ancient greatness.
Her soil still shows every symptom of the fertility which excited the admiration of Hero
dotus. And if at the same time that her bountiful water-supply was husbanded her com
munications, especially by river, were improved, what might not be the results. They who
think that the character of the Government but slightly affects the prosperity of a country,
and that the best Government is that which succeeds the most completely in effacing itself,
would have to admit that Irak forms an exception. The introduction of foreign enterprise
and capital is here handicapped, or rather barred, by political difficulties on which it is
needless to dilate. The central government, even if it had the money to spend on public
works, would never trust its local representatives with the spending of it. Every official
is supposed to be a check on his colleague. All is imperium in imperio, and the leaving
of two noble rivers like the Tigris and Euphrates to run to waste is but a fraction of the
net result. The Tigris affords at all events a fine study of how a river of its size will com
port itself when allowed to play the prodigal. Only this spring, just above Baghdad, it
overflowed its eastern bank on a scale of formidable magnitude. For several days very
little remained between the city and submersion. Its eastern flank, instead of resting on
an arid plain, found itself in a night the dam of a vast lake, arrived at which the Persia-
bound traveller has still to exchange his mules for boats. On the same site have started
up police and customs stations, and in fine the whole course of traffic is temporarily
altered. Just then a great deal of wheat and barley was ripening, and this has all been
destroyed. For months the water has covered the ground like Noah's flood to the great
* In point of depth, opposite Baghdad Residency, average sounding may be about 35 feet, midstream, with a
variable falling off in depth towards either side.